Admiration or Attraction?
by TurtlesBeCool
Summary: Miranda spent almost two years on rebuilding Shepard, she had heard about her heroic deeds but not much else. During those years she slowly felt an attraction growing despite Shepard being a woman and she herself was as straight as they come. Dealing with that and her loyalty to cerberus she had to find a middle ground somewhere between her admiration and her attraction to the hero
1. Chapter 1

The dark haired, tall and slender, Australian woman, but with the perfect amount of curves stalked the, by now, very familiar hallways with a datapad in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. Her destination was her private chambers after yet another long and extensive surgery on her subject. It was an exhausting and tedious amount of work, but her mind for perfection didn't allow her to make mistakes, so she made slow but immaculate process. She wouldn't allow anyone else to do the delicate work, no one else in the organization would be able to recreate what she did, thanks to her genetic altering from 'birth'. So far her subject was nothing more than meat and bones barely kept together by the suit it was found in. Almost every bone broken in some way, skin pale and cold, no oxygen left in the body, but the vacuum of space wasn't the thing that eventually offed her subject. It was hitting the atmosphere of a smaller rock, luckily with water similar to what could be found on earth, slightly higher in ph-values but it was a minor thing.

" _I can't believe she is even in one piece, getting vented in to space with a tear in your suit is one thing. Entering atmo is another, but crashing into water at such velocities should have torn her body apart, not break her bones and rupture every organ in her body. And they want me to bring her back? This project is ridiculous, but nonetheless if funding is virtually unlimited it will just be a matter of time. I hope"_

Three weeks had passed since her boss gave her this assignment, and for three weeks she at been carefully cutting and prying open the suit one piece at the time, slowly revealing the extension of her subjects injuries, multiple fatal ones, fragments of ribs had punctured lungs in multiple places, major blood vessels had been torn to shreds, the skull was fractured and even dented inwards on the right side, her jaw and teeth on the right side had likewise been crushed and broken beyond repair. And that's only some of it, the lack of oxygen had destroyed most of the sensitive nerve endings, her eyes was beyond repair, the temperature changes she must have experienced, first the burning cold from space, then the scorching heat from reentry. Not a single piece of skin was spared from the harsh environmental fluctuations.

" _Thank god I'm not squeamish_ _,_ _Wilson couldn't even stay for longer than 2.8 minutes before he got all white and sweaty, incompetent fool."_

As she reached her temporary domicile the door hissed open upon recognizing her DNA, and hissed again on closing behind her. She went over to her desk in the middle on the furthest wall of the room she entered, sat the datapad and her coffee mug on the left side on the desk, and gently lowered herself into the chair on her right. An orange holographic screen popped up with all the relevant info on her subject, she hadn't bothered looking at it until now, seeing as she have barely even gotten the subject out of the armor. She would have to read up on the slab of meat, she would need to know what it is she's working on, how she had looked before, she would have to imprint the visage of her subject to be able to fully recreate the symbol of hope. She opened the first folder called "Project Lazarus: Subject One" and swiped through a couple of the videos taken from the armor camera. She brought up the first one on the list. It was a long video, so she leaned back in the chair and pressed play. She reached for her coffee and got comfortable.

"Scalpel" she commanded, Wilson was surprisingly efficient these days. For six months the darkhaired bombshell had been removing and grafting on new skin. Organs had been taken out and replaced with temporary machines, the organs that were beyond recovery was replaced by permanent machines. The entire right arm was worse than initially thought. this extraordinary woman had been through hell, and yet here she was a new heart, handmade by her surgeon/doctor, the tall and beautiful one, not the bald weasel. In that arm only the shoulder was recoverable. The rest was now machine too. Both feet had been wrecked too, now also machine.

The woman on the table was currently 65% rebuilt. The head was the final big hurdle, most procedures on the body was done. But the head? It was only freed from the helmet last month. Scans upon scans showed the extensive damage. But seeing it was an entirely different thing. Where eyes should have been there was dark pits. The cave-in on the right side was her jaw, crushed bone and gravity had made it fall like a curtain, shutting off airways.

They had raised the jaw with clamps and cut out the fragments of bone lodged in the tissue, after that they put in a replica made from high density carbon nanotubes, the same as the rest of the body was replaced with. How The Illusive Man managed to get his hands on this material was a mystery, but it was incredibly resilient. Fitting, considering who it went in to.

Another month of work passed, and it was finally time to get to work on the skull. The dome was too brittle to leave as it was. So that too was replaced, so many parts of the subjects body was now manmade and not natural. The virtual tests revealed that this new Commander would be stronger, faster, better at handling information, deadlier. The Australian shot up from bed and grabbed her hexagon patterned white bodysuit, slipped it on and went straight for communications. She passed Wilson on the way bit she was in no mood to talk to him. The Illusive Man wasn't thinking straight, he couldn't let all this funding go to waste on a subject that wouldn't comply with his orders. As she reached the array she tuned in to hos frequency.

"Miranda, a pleasure to see you, it's been a while. How is the Commander holding up?" he asked in his usual confident and authoritative voice.

"With all due respect sir. I think you're making a mistake." She said concerned, "And what might warrant a mistake with this project. I put my best operative on it, surely it should be going just fine." He left no indication that he was concerned about billions of credits being used on one person, he clearly saw something in the Commander that Miranda didn't.

"I believe a control chip should be placed while we are operating on her brain" Miranda said in equal confidence.

"That is not up for discussion Ms. Lawson, I want the commander, the real commander. I don't want a tool, I want the image she represents, she needs to be the same as she was." He finalized but didn't terminate the call.

"Sir. She's gonna be stronger, smarter. When she wakes up she'll see the Cerberus logos and snap. You know her history with the company. I'm concerned about the facility's safety and the people in it."

"They are expendable, humanity needs Shepard. More than you know." He looked down in sorrow, for the first time since Miranda had first been introduced to him, he displayed emotion.

 _I know she's an icon to humanity, she's even a bloody icon to me. Embodying a will stronger than an element zero bomb. A tenacity more ferocious then a vessel in hyperdrive. She's all I wanted to be. But she's still a liability to the people in the facility, while he just sits on his chair in his remote base._

"I understand sir. Sorry for troubling you." She apologized.

"It's fine Miranda. I appreciate you coming directly to me with your concerns, I always admired your lack of fear. Most people wouldn't dare speak against me. It's nice having someone with backbone. Goodnight, Ms. Lawson." He said and terminated the call.

Miranda sighed and went back to her home. Another day tomorrow, another 8 hours of medical stuff. She needed the sleep, no matter how perfect she was made, exhaustion was still a thing. The last image she saw as she fell asleep was a portrait of Shepard on her bedside table. A portrait she had spent hours upon hours looking at. Memorizing all the details on Shepard's face. The barely there freckles, the red shoulder length hair. The beautiful green eyes. Softly tinted pink lips that curved a bit down at the corner, giving her a hard expression when resting her face. Miranda fell asleep to that picture once again. And soon enough, she was in her dream world, where Shepard showed up again. She did so more often than not these days.

 **Alright. Phew, Big fan of ME here, for newcomers to the universe, don't worry all technical terms will be explained, for my fellow fans, this is familiar I hope. My initial reason to write this was the amount of mislabeled FemShepXMiranda. I read the few rightly labeled ones and got inspired. Mostly canon, but it will diverge from the games, as I don't intend to rewrite that story, but places and characters will not be altered. I will however send them to planets unexplored in the games. I really hope I can capture some of the feel from the mass effect universe, but I'm still a beginner in writing so have that in mind. Other than that, I hope you enjoy this draft that I'll build on later.**


	2. Chapter 2

_Another day, another surgery done. It was all a little, strange. I didn't expect her to wake up so suddenly, and I certainly didn't expect her brainwaves to spike like that. She is incredible biotic, I could practically feel the energy building inside her as she panicked. I wonder if we are doing the right thing here._

Miranda was standing in the shower, water cascading down her perfect body and her long dark brown hair. She had been standing there for close to thirty minutes as she contemplated the morals of this project. It was 13 months into the process that she started truly realizing, they were bringing a dead person back to life. The Lazarus project was just that, she knew that from the start. But she didn't recognize the potential success, it wasn't possible to bring the dead to life again, except now it had been done. Even if it did require her to have 46% of her body mass replaced with metal and carbon

13 months in and now they had a steady heartbeat, muscle reaction was good, eyes functioned well enough that they focused on her and Wilson as they opened up earlier. Miranda had the privilege to say the mechanical eyes open for the first time, deep down she was glad that she was the one thing Shepard saw first. Well, and Wilson, but let's be honest Shepard would remember Miranda more than Wilson. The eyes were almost a perfect replica of her original ones, except the irises, instead of just black they now had a soft orange tint when the light bounced of them at the right angle. It was strange to Miranda, seeing the eyes work as intended, she had after all spent the better part of a month to get them just as they were.

It was all strange these days really. Miranda hadn't removed the picture from her bedside table even when she was done reconstructing Shepard's face. It served as a crutch for her loneliness, no matter how hard she tried to deny that she even felt lonely. On top of that, it was messing with her head.

 _What is this project to me? Is it just a job? No, not anymore. Is it merely my admiration for the woman that I perceive as attraction? Maybe. Am I.. No, no way. I never felt like that towards a.. Stop it! Get your head in the game and focus! You are just here until she's fixed, then she won't be around anymore. Don't let yourself get attached, it's just a project. Nothing more!_

She steeled herself and went on with her routine. Wake up, eat, work on Shepard, eat, sleep. Whenever her heart palpitated from seeing a picture or video of Shepard, she would crush those emotions with sheer will. Whenever some of the workers would comment on Shepard's body, she would ignore it, and the thoughts that agreed with them. She convinced herself that it was simply a byproduct of the monotonous day-to-day that was messing with her mind. Everyone would go a little crazy seeing the same people in the same suits and lab coats from morning to evening, while eating and working, every. Single. Day. For more than a year! So that was her excuse. And the worst part of it all. She believed it herself.

Another month passed, the bustle in cafeterias and settled down as the workload decreased. Shepard was fully organed and stitched up, clamps in place where needed. She only had minor stuff left to be done, one of the motors in her arm short circuited when she woke up. So that had to be replaced, which was easy since her arm was, well robotic now. Cognitive functions and her biotics implant was still being tested. According to The Illusive Man, when spending money, get the best. Lucky Shepard, upgrading from L5-implant to a prototype L5.5, it wasn't quite an L6 yet, but the performance and durability should be even better than the regularly issued L5-implants the N7 biotics got.

Miranda herself had the L5, powerful because of the full control she had over ever fiber in her body, but still nowhere near Shepard at her best. Some of the footage she had been viewing when she got bored was almost unbelievable. Shepard was like a one woman army.

Liara, Garrus and Jane was pinned down from heavy Geth fire, Garrus was hit by a blast from a grenade and was knocked unconscious, Liara was wounded by a gun shot to her left thigh, Shepard was looking for a way out for her squad. All exits blocked equals one option. Decimate all hostile targets. And by the light, Shepard did that like no other, throwing around mass effect fields, singularities, stasis', pushes and pulls. And at the same time creating a deflective barrier around herself Garrus and Liara. Of course she collapsed immediately after the fighting was over, and her implant was severely overheated. But she managed to fight herself and her team out of a sticky situation. Alone. Impressive was too weak a word to describe some of the things Shepard had accomplished. Being named the first human specter should have been enough to solidify her image, but it wasn't enough for Shepard. The first thing she did with her new authority, take down a rogue specter with multiple years of experience. Stupid? Definitely.

Yet she won, a final battle on the grandest of space stations, the citadel, determined which Specter was the best of the two. Shepard didn't win without injuries, though she still won. Everyone was shouting her name after that, surveillance cameras catching the entire fight, even the couple of minutes where Shepard tried talking him down from the ledge, offering him a chance to redeem himself. Of course, all other races suddenly wanted human workers, human lovers, even human foods after that. But Shepard wasn't the average human , she was the pinnacle of humanity, the embodiment of hope and justice. The headstrong undefeated champion of the milky way. She was everything good. And then she died. Vented into space and lost for years. The milky way cried mournful tears for weeks, they had lost a hero. A legend.

 _And now I brought her back.. How is that gonna look in the news, a radical pro-human group, resurrecting Shepard from the dead. The extranet is gonna blow up. And what am I gonna do in the meantime? Run errands for The Illusive Man? Well, probably, I still need to take care of Oriana. I can think about that later. I need to check Shepard's vitals._

She had already checked twice in the last three hours. But it was the only excuse that made sense without sparking irregular thoughts in her mind. So she made her way through the undecorated white and grey hallways towards the medical wing. As she entered the room where Shepard was, her ears heard the soothing beeps, indicating a strong heartbeat. She went over to one of the several desks and pulled up the live scan on Shepard, she went through the list. Heartbeat, steady. Brainwaves, within the parameters but in the top of the range. Implant symbiosis, acceptable. Motor functions, optimal.

The list went on and on, all results showed positive signs, only the surgical wounds needed to heal for another month. So she went over to the edge of the table occupied by Shepard. She steadied herself with both hands in the edge of the table. Roaming the features of Shepard's face she was struck by an urge, a sudden need to feel her cheekbones, her skin. So one hand gentle lifted itself and ghosted across the new pristine tissue, unblemished and not weathered from years of military excursions and war. Well there was one scar they recreated, Miranda had found documents from a remote mission. A mission that left only Shepard alive, and the scar had become a symbol to the commander, to never give up, to never surrender.

Miranda had painstakingly worked on it for days, every detail of the scar was the same as it was before. The ridge, the jagged edges, even the faded coloring was to a tee. Miranda felt prideful for it. She saw it as a token of gratitude, that Shepard was the reason she wasn't out risking her life. She was safe here in this facility. Safe from everyone but Shepard, that is if she would react with anger when they would wake her up from her induced coma.

The Australian was still standing with the tip of her fingers on Shepard's cheekbone, "What am I going to do with you Jane? You.. You make me.. Feel things.. Things I don't feel for many people. I'm scared that you won't approve of me. I'm scared that you'll only see the company and not the woman. I hope you will be every bit as compassionate towards me as you were to your old crew.. I.. I.." she was gonna say more but the door on the far aide hissed open, Wilson running through half a second later.

"Miranda! A fire broke out in the west wing. The mechs are on some kind of lockdown mode. Can you fix it from the command center?" he rushed through his words, but his eyes still caught the placement of Mirandas fingers.

"Leave it to me, make sure the fire doesn't spread. Go to the terminal here" she brought up her omnitool, the future smartphone, and punched in a location which she sent to Wilsons Omni, "and wait for .y signal to turn on the sprinklers" she commanded and ran for the control center. Wilson walked to the terminal and waited for the signal.

Miranda ran through the halls, they were all vacated, except a few blood splatters here and there. But who could have done that? Wilson said the mechs were out of commission. She got her answer when she heard a metallic clank from behind her. She barely got a barrier standing before the bullet impacted with her shoulder. With a groan she sent a biotic push into the mech, making it fly into the wall behind it. She turned on the ball of her foot and ran as fast as she could in the heeled boots she always wore. She was still as agile as if the were flat shoes. Such was the perks of an engineered body. Balance, muscles, reactions, every aspect was better than the regular humans. Even her intelligence and biotics were superior. She could maybe rival Shepard in single combat. Maybe.

As Miranda reached the command center she pulled forth her holstered Carnifex. Her trusty sidearm, high caliber bullets and decent stopping power in a handy little gun. Inside the control room three mecha were keeping guard.

 _Wilson you arsehole. I should have known it was you!_ She thought as she charged her biotics, terminating two of the three mechs with a shockwave and a bullet to the last mechs head. The terminal was sabotaged but recoverable. As she got it fired up again the fire alarms started up. She had to do something to save the asset. She had to wake up Shepard. Frantically she punched button after button until she got a hole through to the intercomms in the medbay. She remotely activated the waking procedure to Shepard and waited a few seconds before speaking to her.

"Shepard! Ca… er…" the signal was shoddy, but she could see Shepard rousing from her slumber. "Shepard! Shepard, can you…". _Damnit, work you piece of.._ "Shepard!"

Jane heard someone call for her. A splitting headache was pounding in her head. Her limbs were sore and felt odd. The last thing she remembered was a lack of oxygen and the feeling of drowning. Her military and N7 training kicked in as soon as she registered the alarm blaring in the cold room. Jane sat up on the cold bed to the voice of someone yelling her name, "Just. Give me a second." She said to no one but air.

"I'm sorry Shepard, we don't have a second. Mechs are closing in on your position. Get to the gunlocker through the door to your left, grab some body armor and the pistol inside. I'll send you coordi.. Shit, they're here. Tune into frequency 228.81. Go!" the womanly Australian voice rang out before Jane only heard static. Jane took a quick look around and gathered some intel as to why she was here.

 _Alright, surroundings. Medical bay, sore muscles and fresh surgical wounds. Did.. Did I die? Never mind, focus. Urgh, this armor is too thick and heavy, I can't use my biotics properly in that. Hmm, here we go. This is more my style, lightweight, only covering the most vulnerable spot. The rest I'll handle with barriers. No bullets. Need to fight with biotics until I find some._

A beep from her omnitool, a route to the shuttles. _Objective, leave no mech standing_. She smiled to herself and charged her biotics, _Wouw, that was strange, is it?._ She tested her theory on the fireproof door. _It is. This is awesome!_ She thought as she ran through the bent sliding doors into another large room full of boxes and spare terminals. _Storage room, no boxes with ammo. Gotta keep moving._ A pack of mecha came through the far side entrance. They opened fire upon contact and Jame barely rolled out of the way. The blood started pumping faster through her veins, her biotics tingled her skin as she stood up and charged one of the mechs, she closed the 40 meter gap in a second, impacting the mech with enough force to blow it apart. A shockwave in a 360 degree arc took care of the other three mechs in a similar fashion. _Hah, eat that rustbuckets!_

As Jane ran through the facility, stopping by terminals to downloading documents and files in an attempt to piece the mystery together. All the Wh-words that floated in her head needed answers. Every other room had a few mechs, but they weren't equipped to take on the Commander. She breezed through them like a hot knife through butter. Her biotics were so in sync with her that she forgot to look for ammo, she just charged around in the battles. Destroying mech after mech with her bare hands. Biotically infused bare hands that is.

A few rooms later she heard a grunting from behind a few boxes. She went to check it out and found a balding man, mid forties with a bullet hole in her abdomen. "Shepard?!" he called out in surprise, "Why are you up and walking around?"

"Some Australian chick woke me up and started yelling instructions, I'm just leaving." She said defensively as she noticed the logo on his chest.

"Oh thank god, Miranda is still alive.. She'll probably be at the shuttles waiting for us.. If you could find some medigel to patch up this.. Mrff.. This hole I'm my stomach.. That would be much appreciated" he begged.

"You're Cerberus, why should I trust you?" Shepard took a step away from him and readied her biotics I'm case he attacked.

"I just work here as medical staff… I'm not one of the bad ones, you have to trust me, please."

"Fine, but one wrong move and you're gone. Understand?" Shepard warned and went over to the medigel dispenser pointed out by Mr.. Unknown. She administered it and he was on his feet shortly after.

"Thanks, I'm Wilson.. Wait shh, did you hear that?" he scouted the door still closed.

"I got it" Shepard smirked and turned to the door, both hands ready for whatever walked through the door. 4 mechs again, easy. A singularity in between them took their feet of the ground and floated them midair, then a downwards slam, the two mass effect fields hit each other, making them unstable and explode, taking out all four at once.

"Let's go Wilson, and stay behind me" Jane told him in her Commander Shepard voice, "Lead the way".

Their route had been blocked by a ruptured gas line, showering the doorway in flames. Forcing them to take the scenic route. And what joy, these pipes and vents were so exciting to look at, that beautiful metallic grey, the rattling. The smell. If Jane could move faster through these piped halls she would.

Despite the pace a couple of minutes later they ran into a pinned down Cerberus soldier, who was taking cover behind a metal railing and some benches. He was a good shot, thinning the herd one headshot at a time. Clean shots, every single one, straight through the middle of the mechs' optics. Shepard walked to his side, focusing only on defense, which made her practically invulnerable to the puny bullets these mechs used, "Shepard? You should be on the table in the medbay recovering! And get down before one of the tin cans get in a lucky shot" The dark skinned man told The Commander as he downed two more robots. Jane sighed and looked to the mass of targets on the walkway. _Let's see if this works._ Jane thought as she launched two singularities into the group. The gravity from the double singularity lifted the mechs, "There you go, take them down while they're still floating, I'm not sure how long the fields can hold when sending two out at the same time" Shepard mused and plopped herself down on the bench. _Hmm, more powerful biotics equals more strain. Should have known that from the start._ Seven gunshots went off in rapid succession followed by a bunch of metal falling to the floor as the singularities dissipated.

"Shepard. That was really impressive, I see you're doin fine with your alterations, is the new implant giving you any troubles? How is the motor functions in her feet and right arm? Optimal?" he shot out question after question, but Jane was hanging on to one word only, 'Alterations'.

"What alterations?" Shepard asked a little aggressively.

"Oh boy, Wilson didn't tell you anything?", Jacob looked to a Wilson who was shaking his head, "How do you start a conversation like that Jacob? I didn't know how to break it to her" Wilson said as he rubbed his necked.

"I can get answers later. Right now we need to get out off the facility" Shepard pulled up a map showing the quickest way to the shuttles. Jacob nodded and took point, "We'll give you answers, but since you're up and combat ready we don't need to worry about the station any longer. Let's move" The fit man said.

Jane followed close behind with Wilson getting more jumpy as they got closer and closer to the hangar.


	3. Chapter 3

**Yep guest, I'm gonna completely disregard the fact that Miranda is a Male Shepard only romance. It's my fiction and I always wanted a sexy Australian lady for my FemShep. I originally wanted Tali as my Shepard's significant other but I needed her for another thing she wouldn't be able to do if she was with Shepard in this story.**

Jane followed closely behind Jacob as he scanned the hangar and took out a few mechs on the far side of the room, the noise brought more company unfortunately. Multiple mech squads came pouring in from every entrance. Upon recognizing the three people as threats they opened fire. Jane pushed Jacob out of harm's way and was unlucky enough that a bullet hit her forearm, cutting straight through the armor plating. She should have used some of her spare energy to keep up a barrier. But not knowing how much they still needed to fight, Jane had to conserve some just in case.

"Jacob! Armor piercing rounds! Get behind thicker cover on my mark! 3-2-1-GO!" Jane yelled out, as she jumped out from the boxes she was currently behind and erected a safe bubble with a biotic barrier. Wilson and Jacob ran left in the hangar as Jane held her barrier between the men and the machines. But the fighting along the way, the still healing body and the abrupt wakening was a dangerous combination. The barrier faltered a bit, letting a few bullets through.

Jacob and Wilson reached a closed off room with an entrance on each side, thick walls, bulletproof glass and easy to defend from the mass of robots. "Jacob, hold them off until I catch my breath will ya? That barrier took a lot out of me" Jane told the dark-skinned soldier, who didn't answer but instead got into a defensive position at on entrance. From the room Wilson could see fighting all the way over in the other end of the hangar, flashes could be seen, but the sounds were drowned out by their own fighting. He had two options, shoot Jacob in the back and then the Commander, or hope that Miranda didn't figure out his involvement in the chaos. Miranda would be harder to fight on his own, with her years of combat experience and her intelligence against a spy that used covert tactics. In an open battle Wilson would lose, but if Jacob would believe that Miranda was the perpetrator. Wilson took out his gun and lifted it in Jacobs direction, Jacob turned in the last possible second, "Wilson?!", the trigger was pulled, but the bullet never reached Jacob, instead it hit a mech hidden behind a wooden box.

"Thanks Wilson." Jacob nodded towards the man who nodded back.

Jane was taking a couple of seconds extra to make sure her implant didn't overheat and melt her brain, and to fix that hole in her arm with a lot of medigel and strips ripped from her inner suit. When her breath was slowing down to a steady rhythm again she prepared for fighting again, but the hangar was empty thanks to Jacobs keen eye and steady shooting.

"Well done boys! I didn't even need to save your asses!" Jane exclaimed and slapped a hand down on each of the males' shoulders, flashing them a cocky grin.

"Yeah, maybe the great Commander Shepard isn't all that anyway. You know how rumors get exaggerated and become more epic than the real story!" Jacob jabbed.

"Hah, just see if you can take me on!" she got into a fighting stance, but her arm gave up, the pain was a bit too much, "Right after I'm healed up, how about we go to the shuttles and wait there instead?".

"Wait?" Wilson announced, "We can't wait this facility isn't safe, we need to get out of here".

"Not until Miranda joins us, I tune into her frequency. I still haven't heard from her yet, but I won't leave someone behind in this hole." Jane said, leaving no room for debate, "She's good Shepard, but if she isn't here yet we might have to think of the possibility that she's not coming" Wilson tried anyway.

Jacob was annoyed by the statement and grabbed Wilsons collar, "Listen here lab-rat, Miranda will make it, she isn't going down from a few tin cans trying to get the best of her. We do as the commander says" He growled at Wilson.

"Jeez, relax Jacob, don't let your personal feelings for Miranda cloud your judgement. The fire is spreading, it's only a matter of time before it reached the power-modules, and then this whole place goes boom" Wilson argued back.

"Both of you shut up, I heard something down there" Jane said and pointed to where Wilson had seen the muzzleflashes. Wilson panicked a little but didn't indicate his discomfort. Jane could make out distant whump and immediately recognized it as the sounds of biotics being in use. And mechs didn't use biotics.

"Wait here guys, I'll handle this you deserve some rest" She calmly said as she applied more medigel to her forearm and wrapped it back up with a fresh piece of cloth. She stalked closer and closer from cover to cover. As she reached the end of the hangar a fierce battle was being fought between a catsuit-clad brunette, with impeccable movements, not one step taken excessively, against an unoccupied ATLAS-mech, a large bipedal machine used for various tasks, this one outfitted with heavy weaponry and armor.

The Brunette bombshell was running from cover to cover as the heavy machine gun and rocket launcher took them out one by one, and she was running out of options, so she turned in Shepards direction and dodged an incoming rocket, but the blast took her off her feet. She tumbled across the floor sliding into a few boxes that was still intact. Jane reacted fast, the mech had turned and the minigun whirling sound as it got ready to fire filled her ears. The first bullet left the ATLAS weapon. Jane charged into the boxes, shattering the wood sending it flying in every direction, the splinters distracted the mechs targeting. Bullets followed the pieces for a few seconds as they were flying through the air.

"Hey pretty lady, you alright?" Shepard asked as she held a barrier up between them and the robot.

"I'm fine, you just worry about not letting that metal bucket reach the ship behind you, it's the only way out of here" She told Shepard but never took her eyes off the robot.

"This thing here? Well then let's take it out, I'll distract it, you can sneak up behind and take out the power core." Jane commanded and Miranda nodded.

Jane sent push towards the mech, making it redirect its weaponry to the most dangerous target, Miranda was still on the floor, and the mech disregarded her in favor of its attacker. The gun fired up again, leaving a trail of bullets behind Shepard as she ran in a large circle around the room. Once she was on the opposite side of Miranda she engaged it, pushes was sent left and right aimed at the gun, one of them curve in the air and hit a hydraulic with force. The minigun fell to the floor with a clang, the mech raised the rocket launcher and fired, Jane erected a barrier with both hands, but the blast knocked her backwards. She didn't have enough strength left to withstand the blast and the impact, she slumped back breathing heavily.

A smile broke out on her face as she saw Miranda load incendiary rounds into her gun and fired upon the small hole in the back of the mech. Motor controls went nuts, the mech jerked and twisted for a few seconds before blowing up in a fabulous manner. Jane yelled across the room, "Good shot pretty lady" and gave her a thumbs up while smiling her biggest fully teethed smile.

Miranda harrumphed and slipped on her cold mask, Shepard was there, alive, but she still had to leave her as soon as she had taken the commander to the backup base. No need to encourage friendship or even think of her as an acquaintance. They would part way soon enough and never see each other again, "It's Miranda, Commander. Not pretty lady" she snipped.

"Alright, _Miranda_ how about we get out of here. The others are at the far end of the hangar somewhere." Jane sexed the way she said Miranda and looked around, for a hangar this size there sure were few shuttles to get out of there, although most must have been taken already by fleeing scientists and whatnot.

 _Oh god Shep, don't say my name like that!_ The Australian though, "Others?" she asked out loud.

"Yeah I found Wilson with a bullet wound and a black guy named Jacob, damn he's a good shot, he might give Garrus a run for his money. Wilson, I'm not so sure about. He was jumpy and was fidgeting with something on his Omni, but he saved Jacobs ass. So I doubt he's as bad as I pegged him to be." Jane explained and the facial expression on Miranda was without a doubt a murderous one.

"Damnit! Wilson is the one who started this chaos, you should have let him bleed out." Miranda hissed.

"Why would I do that? I saw a guy laying on the ground, bleeding out, what was I supposed to do?"

"You and your good natured… No worries, I got a plan on how to deal with him" Miranda said emotionlessly.

"How many casualties?" Shepard asked.

"Triple digits" was all she had to say to make Shepard regret saving the man, "I'm sorry" Jane said, truly meaning it, as they both made for the others. On the way there Shepard kept glancing at Miranda, taking in the curves up top and down below, she was beautiful. And Jane definitely noticed as much, but she also had this reserved said about her. This wall of authority and tight behavior. The commander was intrigued by this woman called Miranda, her looks and her voice sparked something in Shepard, something undefinable and unfamiliar.

"Miranda! Shepard! Glad you could join us!" Jacob said, happiness seeping through his voice when he said Miranda's name. _Interesting, I'm going to have some competition,_ Shepard thought. She had already made up her mind in this short while she had known the face to the voice she had heard during her slumber. Miranda's reaction spoke in Jane's favor, she was reserved towards him, not acknowledging his joy of seeing her relatively unharmed.

"Any survivors?" The brunette asked stoically.

Wilson and Jacob shook their heads simultaneously, Miranda nodded and walked away to get to the last shuttle in the hangar. Wilson fell behind a couple of meters, Jacob and Jane didn't think much of it, but Miranda kept her ears poised and her reflexes coiled. A gunshot was heard from the distance and a pained female groan was heard before the commander fell to the floor with a hole through her right lung. Wilson pulled his gun and turned around only to be taken down by a shot to the head. Miranda took aim and fired back, she hit the target dead center and quickly tended to Shepard who was convulsing on the ground.

"Stay with us Jane, you're not leaving us now, you've been far too expensive and taken way to much of our time for you to leave us like this" Miranda said as she quickly shot the last rounds the heat sink could manage, popped it out, wrapped it in biotic energy and guided it to Shepard's wound cauterizing the wound. Temporarily stopping the blood from leaving the commanders veins. She repeated the action on the other side and soon after that Jacob had hoisted Jane unto his shoulders and they were in the shuttle.

"You think she's gonna make it?" Jacob asked from the pilot seat to Miranda who was sitting in the cabin next to Shepard. "I believe she will, the bullet went straight through. Why ?" Miranda asked no one in particular while biting her nails.

"I didn't think operative Lawson ever got nervous" Jacob tried joking bit it came out half hearted tinged with a tiny amount of jealousy. "I don't" she quickly answered and removed her nails from between her teeth. She settle herself in the corner closest to Shepard and put the commanders head in her lap. She stroked the red hair and relaxed her eyes for a second. And soon enough she was out cold too.

A couple of hours later Jacob pulled the shuttle into the bay of a larger space station. He docked the shuttle and Shepard was pulled from the cabin of the shuttle into another medical facility. This one with top notch machines and staff. Shepard was up and running in a few days. Days Miranda spent debriefing and worrying, she was in charge of the facility, and she let it go up in flames. Even with all the confusion about her emotions, she still needed to be on T.I.M.'s good side if she wanted to protect her sister. But on the other hand she didn't want Shepard to get mixed up with him. He had this way of controlling everything around him. The Commander as a symbol could not fall into his hands, and Miranda had to figure out a way to avoid T.I.M. getting his claws on Shepard.


	4. Chapter 4

Miranda was tired after T.I.M.'s debriefing. She hadn't exactly been reprimanded, but he wasn't happy about losing the facility. When Miranda told him, Wilson was the one who reprogrammed the rioting mechs, all he said was that she should have seen it coming. After all, she was supposed to be his right-hand woman. She sighed as she left the communication room while craning her neck to stretch out some worries.

She decided to check up on Shepard still in the med-bay, the doctors had told her to come by, but she didn't have time until now, 3 days since arriving. Work was a poor excuse for not checking up on her, well, work. But she had so many documents to fill and reports to send out since the facility lost a lot of men and women. She just hoped Shepard would understand why she hadn't been by to say hi.

 _Why do you care if Shepard understands or not? You are literally nothing to each other. You rebuilt her, yes. But she's still Alliance to a fault, and you're Cerberus not a good match. And then there's that…_ Miranda's thoughts abruptly cut off as she noticed Shepard resting a hand on the lower back of the doctor examining her lung. Shepard was smiling and the doctor was blushing. It didn't require a mind such as Mirandas to recognize flirting this obvious. Nevertheless, she entered and steeled her expression and strode up to the bed with an apparently quite drugged up Shepard.

"Hiii Miri you beautiful sexy woman you! These painkillers are really really good. You should try them out." The commander happily exclaimed and gestured wildly with her free hand. The doctor immediately scolded her, "Sit still commander! I'm trying to drain your lung of excess blood... Again... Next time you leave your bed and open up the wound I'm inclined to let you bleed internally until it becomes too painful for you to even lie down." The blonde snapped, Miranda took notice that the hand never left her back, and she didn't ask Shepard to move it.

"Doctor if you will, I can do the rest of the procedure" She said, _commanded_ , to the doctor with a blush.

"Of course Ms. Lawson. I'll just…" She trailed off and relinquished her tools, the hand on her back tightened enough to make her pinned against the side of the bed.

"Awww doc, please don't go! You have such pretty eyes! I wanna marry youu!" Jane dreamily sung.

"Shepard, oh Shepard, of course I'll marry you!" The doctor screamed, threw her arms around her neck and kissed her deeply while staring down Miranda.

Miranda stood with the tube and vacuum pipe in her hands, her fingers tightened around the tools with each passing second. That is until her name was called for the third time, "Miranda! Stop!" Shepard slurred raised voice broke through the daydreaming Miranda.

The Australian looked at her hands and notice the doctors' fingers in her tight grip, the fingertips turning white and the doctors face scrunched up in pain. She released her as fast as she could and profusely apologized. The doctor looked at her, "It's fine Ms. Lawson," then she turned to Shepard "And you, remember to stay right here, I'm sure a lot of people would get really angry and hurt if you died again" The doctor finished the sentence looking at Miranda, who had her eyes trained on Shepard's face.

"Of course, doc… Hey it's a little strange isn't it. I was dead not long ago… Wow… I'm gonna rest, my head is spinning like a…" She passed out mid-sentence.

"Sorry, she didn't seem like she was in any state of mind to follow your orders." Miranda said with a hand on the sedative IV.

"Are you sure you should give her such high doses?" The doctor asked in worry.

"Oh don't worry, her cybernetics and other upgrades will burn through the sedative. She can even drink Ryncol without dying." Miranda was amused at the surprise on the doctors face.

"But… That is like acid, it can melt through metals!" She said in shock.

"I know, most poisons and acids are harmless to Shepard now, and her tolerance for alcohol is likewise boostef. I took the liberty to upgrade whatever I could on her while I rebuilt her. See her arm?"

"Yeah what about it?" The doctor raised a curious eyebrow.

"Put your hands on the shoulder" the doctor did as told, "Feel the joint?" the doctor nodded, "push upwards and see if anything is out of the ordinary".

The doctor poked around but couldn't find what Miranda was referring to. She tried getting under the muscle by prodding from the sides, and that's when she felt it. A small rise in the bone about a quarter of an inch in width and an inch in length. "What the…" the doctor furrowed her brows and kept poking and feeling the arm. She felt more of those bumps along Shepard's upper arm.

"The entire arm is reconstructed from Carbon, Titanium and a special Element Zero alloy to allow biotics to flow through it like in an organic arm" Miranda proudly announced.

"This is incredible! How did you manage to do this? Never mind, I don't want to know. Shepard told me she died and was brought back… If that's possible I'm not sure I want to continue in this field, that takes playing god to an uncomfortably real level." She held up her hands like she didn't want to touch Jane anymore.

"I know…" Miranda scowled, keeping her eyes focused on the sleeping Shepard. Her hands did the draining procedure without her noticing. 2 years of working on Shepard had made her weirdly accustomed to the commander's body, she knew every in and out and could perform wonders on it without thinking. _She's just a project… DO NOT get attached Miranda! But.. NO! No buts.. just shut up and move along._

"She's lucky to have you Ms. Lawson, she told me how lost she felt after waking up. I don't think she meant to, the drugs must have clouded her judgement. She told me about you, how you were the first thing she saw as she woke up. She even said you were the most beautiful woman she has laid her eyes upon. After that she went of on a tangent about the Asari's head crests and kept flirting with me, she's actually really down to earth. Not at all what I expected from a legend. I think I might actually like her." The doctor blushed again and laughed softly before she bid Miranda farewell.

Miranda waited for the doors to hiss a second time before speaking, "Oh Shepard, you really know how to worm your way into people's heads. I leave you alone for three days and already you're converting Cerberus employees to the fellowship of Shepard. You will be an immense pain in my ass in the future. But I believe you're worth it." She smiled to herself and kissed Shepard on the cheek. As soon as she did she regretted giving in. Because now she wanted to feel Shepard's skin under her lips again.

She dismissed the thoughts as she got settled into the corner of the couch. She ghosted her fingers across her lips, an involuntary smile was plastered on her face for the rest of the night until she fell asleep on the couch.

Shepard was sweating and thrashing, her nightmare was of that faithful day. The day she was spaced was the worst day in her life, Liara and Tali were the ones who took the last escape pod with Joker. The three of them saw their Commander get blown away from the ship and into the vacuum of space. Shepard remembered the way Tali was beating on the glass most likely yelling and crying at the same time. She didn't want to leave them there, but it was her or them. And Shepard always chose her team.

Her nightmare didn't stop there, she felt her airways constrict and stop her lungs from expanding. It was like drowning, falling towards a planet in space was like floating in water with lungs full of liquid. Disoriented and cold. Before she even reached the atmosphere, she was gone. The darkness had finally won.

Shepard was still dreaming and tossing in her bed, her biotics flared due to the stress of the dream. The entire med-bay shook, it was like it was hit by an earthquake. Miranda was shaken awake, her eyes widened in shock at the sight. Shepard's body was still on the bed, small wisps of blueish purple energy appeared all over her body, travelled in a short arc until it disappeared into her skin again. It was like watching a simmering fire while out camping. Shepard threw her head to the side and sent a window pane out of it's socket in the wall. Alarms went off in the space station, waking Shepard from her slumber, just as disoriented as she was in the dream. Her eyes unfocused yet her body worked on instinct, she threw off the covers, jumped off the side of the bed and headed for the door. But her legs give out under her as soon as she landed, only a hand on her shoulder stopped her path towards the floor.

"Air.. I… need… air" Shepard wheezed between large gulps of air without looking at Miranda, and tossed a hand towards the door.

"Okay Jane, let's get you out of here" Miranda cautiously put Shepard's arm around her shoulder to support the dazed Commander. She could feel the biotic energy tingle every nerve that was exposed to Shepard's touch, it was almost intense enough to numb her skin, and Shepard's panicked grip was so strong she dislocated Miranda's shoulder. She had to set Shepard's mind at ease, Shepard wanted air outside, and Miranda complied. She guided the woman currently going through an anxiety attack or nervous breakdown to the only place she could call outside. A large room filled with trees and grass, luckily very close to the medbay. Shepard had no intention of waiting, she threw herself into the grass and rolled over on her back. She breathed in deeply through her nose, and exhaled slowly. Jane repeated the action a couple of times until she felt calm again.

"I'm sorry…" Shepard said as she closed her eyes and turned her head away from Miranda in shame. She twisted her head around again when Miranda spoke.

"It's okay Shepard. No one expected you to not be affected by the experience of dying. The cognitive stress must be immense, I couldn't begin to imagine how waking up after suffocating like that must feel like. I would be more surprised if you didn't react this way some time sooner or later. Although I must check your Biotic Amp and your cybernetics. That was quite a scare you gave me there." She winced and clutched her shoulder, it didn't go unnoticed by Shepard.

"Oh god! I'm so sorry Miranda, I promise I'll make this up to you someday" Shepard apologized but didn't get up from the position in the grass.

"It's my duty to protect you and keep you healthy, my shoulder has been through worse than that." Miranda smiled at the exhausted Shepard.

"Good to know you aren't fragile" Shepard winked at her and closed her eyes, "I think I'd like to sleep here instead if that's okay with you?"

"Whatever you want Shepard. I feel like I should warn you though, if people see you sleep here they will look at you weirdly in the future." Miranda added in a soft voice.

"Ah, you worry too much about image. Just do whatever you want, people will follow you even with a few eccentricities and quirks. You're welcome to join me right here if you want to." She laughed and smiled while wiggling her eyebrows, still with closed eyes.

"I would rather sleep in my bed, but thank you for the offer, goodnight Shepard"

"G'night Miranda"

The operative turned to leave but went to the bench nearby instead, she sat down and pulled out her omni-tool, flipped through a couple of reports until she hit the one she was looking for. The title, "The first human Spectre", she opened the file and started reading about Shepard's heroics. She had always been fascinated by her ever since she was announced as the first human to join the ranks. Humans were short lived, they had tempers and let emotions cloud their thoughts and decisions, according to other species. But Shepard did it, the pinnacle of humanity indeed. Miranda admired the tenacity she displayed during her mission to stop Saren, the rouge spectre. She wished she had made different choices in life, just to have been closer to that event. At least she was there now, close to the legend. Maybe closer than anyone else, she did rebuilt her from barely nothing, that had to count for something.

 _You need another hobby Miranda!... I know…_

She shut off the Omni and started observing Shepard's peaceful expression as she pushed her nose into the grass. Someone with more power than a regular 3-man squad laying innocently in the grass was an amusing sight, she had to capture the moment. She snapped a quick picture of Shepard with a dumb grin on her lips. Once she determined Shepard wasn't going to have another nightmare she left the bench and headed to her own room for some proper sleep.

When she finally got dressed in her usual sleep attire, a pair of panties accompanied by either a large shirt; a nightgown or a bare chest better known as topless, she pulled up the picture of Shepard on a datapad and smiled to herself before closing her eyes.

 _Shepard… Why did it have to be you I rebuilt? Two years of my life I studied you, your body, your everything. I never expected this to be the outcome. How I wish I could've known it before I took the job. Then I wouldn't have to hide these… feelings you brought up in me. I wish I could just stay loyal to Cerberus and forget about you, lead my own life as I saw fit. But now I have you, here, about to lead a team with me, how can I not fall for that just a little bit? You're a god damn hero, and I have admired you for so long. Then you said my name like that. How am I ever going to be able to say no to you?_

The war with herself had just started and she knew it would only get worse. She just hoped that once they were out there, doing stuff, it would take her mind off of Shepard. Just for a while she would like to be her old self. But the two years had changed her, she admired the woman, sure. But knowing so much about her and what she did, she may have fallen for her. Time would give her an answer, or Tali would. Either way she would find an answer to the conflict between emotions and rationality.

Her loyalties lay with Cerberus, they gave her purpose and protection when no one else would. But Shepard pulled at her heartstrings. She knew T.I.M. wouldn't approve of her if she decided to pursue Shepard romantically. The consequences were too severe to even think about, what would he do to her sister? What would he do to her?

 _Just go to sleep and rebuild the walls that has kept you from making mistakes all these years. Tomorrow you will curb these thoughts and stay professional, don't waver now. You've spent too much time climbing the ranks to throw it away now… But, it's Shepard! I know, I'm you, just.. you without the mind of a teenager.. Fine, tomorrow we start over, we will stop Shepard's advances if she makes any and then we will complete this mission of our to stop the collectors. You're the Ice queen, no one stands in your way. Not even yourself!_

As much as she would like to stop any and all thoughts of Shepard, she couldn't stop her own dreams from conjuring images of the commanders smile, or her hair, or those immaculate breasts of hers that she had recreated and spent too much time staring at.

 **AN: To avoid another retelling of the games this story will be very different from the games. The reaper invasion isn't looming over their heads, the collectors and The Illusive man are the main antagonists, with Henry Lawson being a close third. So no conduit child thingy, no doomsday at least for now. It will be more of a "normal" version of the story, where the bad guys aren't an ancient threat but simply misguided and disturbed people, along with an insect-like species that abducts asari and turians too. I read a couple of stories and most of them takes the games scenes and simply fills out more personal interaction between the missions. I want to avoid this becoming yet another one of those, but I will still pull inspiration and events from the games, just out of order and with a different purpose.**


	5. Chapter 5

Miranda spent most of her time fixing Shepard and all the mechanical stuff in her limbs. It gave her a lot of time with the commander. And with it a lot of thoughts she had tried to rid from mind. She had lost count of how many times Shepard had injured herself or how many times the electronics malfunctioned. It was as if Shepard's body rejected the alterations. That or the original Shepard had bones made of titanium, and flesh made of some alien material. With each operating session they grew closer.

Miranda listened to Jane talk about her old crew. She listened to how Shepard had felt and experienced all the missions she had only read reports of. She noticed how much Shepard actually left out of the official reports, which were always straight to the point and almost clinical in nature, compared to the emotion Shepard showed when she talked about her firsthand experience. All the lives lost that Shepard blamed herself for.

When that topic was exhausted she started asking questions about Shepard's old crew. Jane was more than glad to share. A little to glad. Miranda couldn't help but hang onto the adjectives Jane used to describe Liara and especially how fondly she talked about Tali. Jealousy was now a feeling Miranda knew very intimately. But her walls kept them contained. And she successfully averted any advance. For a while after the window incident Shepard continued to flirt relentlessly. Until she didn't.

Another feeling Miranda didn't know beforehand made itself present. Saudade, as she had figured out after some research, the feeling of longing for something you love after it's gone. After a week she was certain that, that was the exact emotional state she found herself in. Longing for Shepard's flirty nature. When it was directed at her of course.

A month of no flirting and she finally understood that it wouldn't just go away with time. She woke up every morning wanting to stay close to Shepard, and at the same time avoid her like the plague. So, she focused on work and the training sessions. It got easier to hide her growing feelings, and then it got harder, and then it got easier again. A regular old emotional rollercoaster. But when Jacob started in on trying to get closer again, she thought she had lost Shepard for good. Shepard and Jacob talked more and more and became something akin to friends. Could it be because Shepard had told him that she didn't want her anymore?

All the confusion she felt and couldn't navigate escalated until the day Shepard finally woman-ed up and forced her to see through the fog that was her emotions.

"JACOB GO LEFT, FLANK THE COLOSSUS. MIRANDA, STAY IN COVER ONCE YOU GET UP TOP AND WAIT FOR MY ORDER!" Shepard yelled out as she took out two more projections.

The training scenario this time was Virmire inspired. Shallow clear water, sandy ground, rocky valleys and green trees. Their location was a facility inspired by a place well known to Shepard. The Krogan cloning facility where Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko gave his life to save the rest of the team.

Shepard had requested the scenario to everyone's surprise. With the explanation that she needed to meet her demons head-on and deal with them. It didn't go as well as she had hoped. Shepard was angry at herself, which she took out with hard orders to both Jacob and Miranda. Yet they didn't seem too affected by her mood, they carried out the orders with deadly precision despite the tone.

Jacob ran left from their hiding spot, Miranda ran back towards the area they came from towards a ladder, while Shepard laid down cover fire and distracted the colossus.

Once Jacob hit the next cover he ducked down and ran hunched over toward the transmission tower to get up to a vantage point. From there he could take out the large target in the middle of the open spaced area in front of the team. As he ran up the ramp he was met with heavy resistance, shielded geth and rocket troopers. He sent a shockwave into the group that was meant to throw some of them off the platform, but their shields absorbed the impact, as a result Jacob took a few hits which, if he wasn't in a simulation, would have taken him down.

"I'm down Shep, sorry" Jacobs voice sounded through the comms.

Miranda met a similar situation, once she had climbed the ladder to the top part of the facility. Multiple geth troopers was dropped in from above as soon as she got situated. She managed to take down two of the seven troopers before they tore her shields apart and sent her down for the count.

"Same here Shep. Time to see if your upgrades can handle a little pressure and if they're combat ready." Miranda firmly said in her sexy Australian accent, which made Shepard smile and focus even harder on the fight. Jane always liked the bossy Miranda.

 _Sorry Shepard, I'll do better next time. For you._ Miranda thought to herself. On the outside she kept up appearances and stayed cold and calculating. On the inside she was dying to get the flirty Shepard back.

"Please don't shock me again. Please don't shock me again. Please don't shock me again." Jane repeated to herself, thinking about their training session a few days back. It had hurt like hell when her right arm had shocked her to unconsciousness due to faulty wiring between the Element Zero infused metals and the pressurized joints.

Shepard discarded her assault rifle in favor of a shotgun. She then charged towards the geth at the transmission tower, as soon as she got out of the charge field she unloaded the shotgun into the group of enemies. Three targets went down before the shotgun hissed and ejected the heatsink. Before she reloaded she warped the shields of the last two targets and knocked them off the platform with a push of biotics. She had managed to take them all down before they got a clean shot in, her shields had been drained in the process though.

The troopers from Mirandas location had a clear view to the tower and started firing towards Shepard. She was hit in the shoulder by one and in the leg by another. The simulation electrified her muscles to feign real wounds. Jane threw herself behind a short wall, landing heavily on her good shoulder and finished reloading her shotgun. From her position she pulled at Jacobs leg and dragged him into cover. She administered a dose of medi-gel. A few seconds later Jacobs suit stopped the muscle lock-up and he was combat-ready again. He knelt behind the cover and used a biotic pull to get his weapon back he had dropped on the ramp.

"We're at a disadvantage here Shep, these troopers are at the highest difficulty setting to best simulate a real combat zone. It would be best to retreat to another location and take them down from two sides." Jacob suggested in heavy breathing. Jane surveyed the area.

Two troopers had stayed at Mirandas vantage point, with sights trained directly towards her and Jacob. The three other geth had gotten down to ground level and split into three positions. The colossus had moved towards another more secure location on the opposite side of the facility.

"They are trying to flank us and box us in, we have to split up. Get over to the railing and jump down, the supporting concrete below us should hide you from the geth but not the colossus. I'll distract the colossus if you can take out the two up top." Shepard ordered, Jacob nodded once.

"Okay on three. One. Two. Go!" she yelled and jumped out from her cover while Jacob followed her orders.

Jane charged a barrier around her armor, an ability she had trouble with since she had gotten her upgrades. It wasn't perfect, but it held up well against the colossus that had charged a plasma ball and fired it in her direction. She felt the impact deep in her bones, it rattled her skull and made her vision blur and her head swimming. Jane shook herself out of the daze and unhooked a grenade from her belt which she threw towards the leftmost geth trooper on the ground. Without looking she ran down the ramp dodging geth bullets and left to get out of the field of vision from the colossus.

She must have been hit harder than expected because her left leg was wobbling beneath her and her foot felt heavy. She ignored the sensation and slid in behind a rocky pillar. Jacob had already taken out the troopers up top while they had focused on Shepard running across the field, and now he was trying to avoid getting flanked by the last two geth on the ground. Shepard noticed another three targets incoming on her shortrange-vicinity-radar. They came from behind an opening in the rock wall behind Jacob, but she couldn't see them directly.

"Jacob behind you, I'll try to slow them down, but be ready!" She huffed out as she charged her favorite biotic ability, a singularity. But she had to throw it in a curve without hitting any obstacles on the way. She made a few quick calculations and decided that a right hand upwards curve had the highest possibility to succeed. It went flying with a beautiful blue tail behind it. Before it even hit Shepard had turned and ran parallel with the walkway the colossus was standing on.

She heard the singularity go off with a whump and a few shots go off. Jacob was an excellent soldier, even if she didn't personally like his connection with Miranda, she still thought of him as friend material, they shared a lot of the same ideas and were both loyal to their beliefs. A trait she found admirable even with the difference in who they were loyal to.

Jane reached the end of the walkway, jumped and twisted in the air as she sent a warp field towards the colossus. She hit it square in its targeting sensors. Shepard hadn't accounted for the colossus to be ready with another plasma projectile so soon. It hit her in the middle of the chest and down she went.

"FUCK!" She yelled and threw her weapon away in anger as the simulation flickered and the projections turned to blue wireframes and then finally disappearing. Jacob came running over, panting slightly and shot out a hand.

"We almost had them this time Shepard." He smiled as she took his hand and got pulled to her feet.

"It still wasn't good enough." She grumbled and stretched her leg, her foot still felt heavy.

"No, it wasn't. But that's what the training is for. Nice curveball back there, half a step to the left and you'd have hit the group straight on, seems like you're getting used to controlling your biotics through the eezo metals." He patted her shoulder still with a dumb grin on his lips.

"Always the optimist huh. But yeah, I've been feeling more at ease with it lately. Although I think my left foot is busted again. It feels like it doesn't react to my commands properly." Jane looked down at it and tried to make a circle motion with it. It jerked a bit when it was pointing left.

"Follow me Shepard we need to fix this right away to avoid breaking it completely." Miranda said clinically from behind them.

"You're a ray of sunshine today. Alright, let's go. Jacob dear would you please come and help me if I'm not back in a couple of hours. And tell my mom I love her please." The redheaded commander joked as she followed Miranda out of the dark blue simulation room.

"You got it commander. See you two later." Jacob waved and went towards the backwall with all the computers. On his way he picked up the practice weapons to deposit them in the hangers next to the consoles.

Miranda kept herself a few steps in front of Jane to avoid having her in her field of vision.

 _Why aren't you saying anything? You are so quiet these days. Did I really make you believe I wasn't interested? Or are you just waiting for me to make a move? Why is this so difficult to figure out? I wish I knew what to do with myself. With you._ Miranda thought to herself.

After the first week or two of relentless flirting, which Miranda didn't indulge Shepard in. Jane had stopped her advances. And that more than a month ago. On one hand Miranda counted herself lucky she didn't have to deal with it, but a part of her missed it immensely. Ultimately it meant that Shepard had gotten the hint that she wouldn't be interested. Or at least the illusion that she wasn't interested. And then Shepard had gone and befriended Jacob. It just made the whole situation even more volatile since Jacob also notice the flirting had stopped. And now he had been doubling his efforts to get on her good graces again. Curse her genetically enhanced body, which she was sure was the reason for Jacobs interest at this point.

"Hey Miranda, can you tell me why I feel this tingling in my neck when I charge my biotics?" Shepard asked as she went over the specs of her mechanic parts on her omni tool.

"Here let me see that." Miranda instinctively said and took Shepard's hand in her own to turn the omni tool her way. It wasn't intentional, and Miranda didn't even notice that, once she had a clear view of the omni tool and could let go of the Commanders hand she didn't.

"Hmm, I see. Look, your biotics are still overheating the joints. It's not a major problem right now since it's only a few degrees above the norm, but it's enough to create the tingling sensation. If it compromises your focus I can look at it while we get your ankle fixed." Miranda explained, and she soon noticed her hand was still holding onto Shepard's. She immediately let go and continued towards the medical bay.

Jane was stunned for a moment before gathering her wits again. She tried to catch up to Miranda with her broken foot which proved more difficult than she first thought it would be. The commander couldn't help it, her eyes followed the bouncing hair, it looked so silky soft even after a hard training session. Her curves were captivating, and Shepard couldn't stop herself from following them down to her hips.

 _Thank whatever celestial being that made tight leather suits! Okay, relax. But look at her, what do I have to do to make her mine? She does seem to be impervious to your cocky charm… That's true. But look at her, she's already on the verge of breaking out of that "I'm straight"-shell… Hmm, you should still give her time to figure it out on her own, in the end it's still her that must admit it to herself… Right, but I can still look right? Yes, please don't ever stop looking! Wait, shit she turned around and now she knows you were checking her out._

Miranda hadn't been able to stop her internal battle with herself, and once they arrived at the operating table, or rather chair, she turned around. Noticing how Shepard's eyes were focused on her ass she tried getting Janes attention. After calling her name a couple of times and Jane still didn't react she got a little worried.

"Shepard? Are you feeling alright?" Miranda asked in that same clinical voice she always used when it was doctor time, but this time she had just the tiniest blush going. If Shepard's eyes were normal she wouldn't have notice it, but these new ones could discern colors from each other more precisely than any humans could.

"Huh, you were saying?" Shepard blinked once and focused on Mirandas eyes.

"You're impossible you know. Get on the chair and let's get this over with." _And I find myself kind of liking the effect I have on you. And lately these thoughts have been less scary, and more, alluring. Okay, you can do this. It's just Shepard. And her skin. Her soft, soft skin. FOCUS!_

Jane did as she was asked and hopped on the chair. Once she was seated Miranda started to delicately pull off the few armor pieces Jane had on with trembling hands. A pair of shoulder pads, chest and back armor and knee/shin pieces. The one on Janes left leg was the first go for obvious reasons. Miranda was extremely careful today which got Jane wondering. Had it been a minor injury Miranda would have been more careless and gotten it done quickly. But now she was shaking and operating slower than usual.

The commander remembered a particularly dreadful day where she had royally pissed off the bombshell. Jane had tried lifting the Mako while testing her biotics. It hadn't gone as planned. Jane managed to lift it just enough to make the suspension relax, then all hell broke loose when her arm started to smell burnt and her head began pounding as if it was hit with a hammer. Miranda wasn't happy when Shepard had to tell her what she was doing. The catsuit Australian had jammed the scalpel hard into her forearm, cut all the way down from elbow to wrist, peeled back the skin and dug around inside, without waiting for Shepard to prepare herself. Not even waiting for the anesthesia to take effect.

But with the foot thing she was too careful, too delicate. The omni tool that was built into Shepard's arm kept track of her vitals. Right now, it was monitoring her heartbeat, and the beat kept increasing in frequency the longer Jane spent coming up with horrific scenarios as to why her doctor was so careful in her current procedure instead of fast and effective as she usually was.

"Relax Commander." Miranda softly said without looking away from the injured foot.

"I'm trying" Jane replied as she laid back in the chair and closed her eyes.

"Then why is your heartbeat rising?" _Please let it be because of me. Really Miranda? Yes!_

"You're being too careful... That means something is worse than you though." Jane worriedly said.

"Hmm, you're not entirely wrong." _It's not your foot, it's your head, Idiot. Just notice how I'm struggling with this, thing, and help me out! You're pathetic Miri. I know._

"Come on, that's not funny. What is going on." Jane asked anxiously.

"We may have to amputate." Miranda said seriously, Jane relaxed once she heard that.

"Ah, well, you can just build another foot, can't you?"

"Really Commander? That doesn't concern you?" Miranda had to look up at Jane, confusion marring her features.

"Uh, no? I mean take a look at this x-ray," Jane gestured to the omni to emphasize her point, "I can just get another one made right?" She asked oblivious to Mirandas intentions of making a joke.

"…" Miranda groaned and dropped her gaze to the foot again, "The one time I try making a joke to ease myself into this and she takes my words at face value and ruins my conviction so easily." She mumbled to herself.

"What was that?" Jane curiously asked.

"Nothing Commander, lay back and relax this is going to sting." Miranda sighed, then proceeded to cut a small incision between the tibia and the talus bones.

 _How can you be this dense Shepard?_

Jane clenched her jaw and focused on laying still despite the uncomfortable feeling.

"Ah I see what's wrong here." Miranda said out loud, "We have to replace the loadbearing ball-joint in here. It's fractured, most likely from the increased stress on your body when leaving the warped space around you during a biotic charge. I really thought this alloy would hold up better. At this rate we have to replace parts once a month which is far from ideal." Miranda said as much to herself as she said it to Shepard.

"That would be a waste of time in the long run." Shepard agreed.

"We need to find someone with the expertise to craft a stronger alloy to avoid something like this in the future." Miranda said as she propped up Shepard's leg in a brace meant to hold it still.

"Didn't Timmy send us dossiers on multiple experts in different areas?"

"Yes he did, what are you thinking? Mordin?"

"Exactly, I know he's not really known for his mechanic skills but he's one of the smartest scientists among a race that is known for their intelligence. He should be able to come up with something that is strong enough right?" Shepard looked at Miranda creasing her brows together in thought, she couldn't quite place it but when Miranda was concentrated and focused she had this glow about her. Something Shepard could get used to look at. The thought opened up for more scenarios. Miranda sitting on Janes couch reading a book in nothing but her jammies. Miranda building one of the many model ships Jane planned on getting for her collection, again in pajamas. Miranda failing at cooking and then getting annoyed only to try again and again, in the same outfit.

"Miranda?" Shepard prodded.

"Yes Commander." She raised a single eyebrow.

"I kind of want to see you in pajamas." Jane said, which was not what she had meant to say, but her thoughts had infected her words.

 _Oh god, did she really just say that? STOP ARGUING WITH ME. YOU. US! Whatever, and say something, this is the perfect transition to broach the subject of… of… Say it… Of romance._

"I sleep in the nude, so that's not going to happen" She said flatly. _Is this the way you flirt? How did anyone ever stand being in a relationship with you? They didn't, remember? Right…_

"… W-what? How can you say something like that with a straight face?" Shepard spluttered.

"Did I finally manage to fluster the great Commander Shepard?" Miranda said smugly and smirked casting a quick glance at Jane. _Nonono, don't patronize her, be sexy Miranda, not smug!_

"No… Fine, yes you did..." Shepard groaned and hid her face behind her hands. A silent moment passed between them. Both women wanted to say something. Jane was tired of acting like she didn't want Miranda. And Miranda was contemplating what Shepard's lips felt like against her own more than she wanted to admit. But none of them said anything, much to the others dismay.

 _Look at what you did, you have to say it now, otherwise you'll just get cold feet. NO, don't do it._ The Operative tried to stop herself, but she utterly and totally failed. _Come on Miranda, this is the perfect opportunity! Shut up! No, do it now!_

"Shepard?" _No stop, veer off this path._

"Mmm."

"Can I…" _No don't say it, you'll have to live with the embarrassment for eternity... SHUT UP! You are no longer in charge!_

"Can you what?" Shepard asked from under her hands in embarrassment.

For a few agonizing seconds the heartbeat monitor started beeping faster again. Jane was sure that Miranda was finally going to come out of her shell.

"Nevermind…" The Australian finally said as she went back to her task. _Coward._

Jane couldn't keep up the act any longer, if Miranda hadn't done anything by now she would have to nudge her. Just a little.

"Miranda…" She started, and the Australians hands stopped any and all movement. Frozen in place Miranda mentally prepared herself to answer what she knew would come. "…we've been skating around this for a while now. Just. Just tell me what's going to happen with us. Tell me what you want." Jane carefully pried her hands from her face and forced herself to look Miranda directly in the eyes. The simulation of Virmire had drudged up more memories than intended, she had believed herself to be ready to face it. Questions she would never get answered brought with them a load of regret. And this thing with Miranda wasn't something she ever wanted to associate with regret. She had to ask. She had to know.

Miranda looked at the green color she herself had chosen. She was silent as she contemplated all the stuff that had happened between them during the last two months.

The brushing of hands. The longing looks they sent to each other when the other wasn't paying attention. Jane's relentless pursuing. And when she stopped all together. The intimate sessions on the operating table when Shepard injured herself. Well, intimate is a bit of a stretch. But that was the only time they were totally alone together. A mumbling Jane talking in her sleep. The occasional sound of Mirandas name in the moments when Shepard was unconscious. She knew she wasn't alone in dreaming of the other. But her lack of knowledge in these matters made her scared of what it could bring. Miranda had a million reasons to shoot her down, yet one very big reason not to. And now Shepard was here, asking her directly what she wanted. And Miranda tried to say that she wanted her. But it came out all wrong. "I don't know Shepard." When Shepard deflated she began berating herself straight away.

 _*sigh* You're just as impossible as Jane is. Tell me about it. You should have said "You Shepard, you're hat I want. Please ravage me" instead you went with, "I don't know", if I could kick your ass I would._ Before she could completely ruin her own self-esteem, Shepard grabbed her belt.

"Well I know what I want." Shepard said with conviction as she pulled Miranda towards her, making her drop the tools she had in her hands. Miranda stumbled and bumped her hip on the chair as she fell halfway over Shepard. With their faces inches away from each other Miranda could see the shutter-like pupils of Shepard's eyes hone in on her lips.

 _This is it Miranda… I know!_

She closed the short gap and fell into a state bliss she didn't know existed. She lifted herself up on the chair and straddled Janes hips. Janes hands tangled in her hair as their lips wrestled and tried to take the lead. Miranda had braced herself with a hand on each of Janes shoulders. Both women lost in each other after a two-month build-up.

 _See. Was that so hard?_ They both thought in unison.

* * *

 **A/N: Some time has passed, the urgent missions was put on hold due to Shepard having issues with her new body parts. I always have a problem with protagonists being impervious to damages, and if they get injured they always bounce back quickly. This process of Shepard training and malfunctions happening seemed more in tune with reality. Plus, I didn't want to spent multiple chapters/updates on telling about each time she got injured and fixed. So yeah, this is what happened instead.**

 **Love Mr. Turtle**


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